France’s infamous ‘Bluebeard’, family man, lover of roses, philanderer and murderer of ten women and a boy.

Landru was a dealer in second-hand articles, furniture, toys and cars. He also perpetrated swindles, for which he received prison sentences. During the First World War he enticed widows by the prospect of matrimony, stripped them of any assets and then killed them.

He placed advertisements in the newspapers such as, ‘widower…with comfortable income, affectionate, serious…desires to meet widow with a view to matrimony.’ He received nearly 300 replies to seven such advertisements, and he carefully recorded the applicants’ prospects in a notebook, with special reference to their financial status. Between May 1915 and January 1919, Landru murdered at least ten women. He moved into the villa Ermitage at Gambais - and quickly installed a stove. The clouds of smoke and offensive smell produced by this apparatus caused little concern in a country district.

In 1919 a Mlle Lacoste asked the Mayor of Gambais to help trace a middle-aged widow who had disappeared after a visit to Gambais with a bearded man. The Mayor made inquiries when he had a similar request about another widow who had disappeared also with a bearded man, and the Villa Ermitage was mentioned. The owner of the house (known locally as M.Dupont) was no longer there, but the police hunted Landru.

When Landru was apprehended his notebook was found, with its damning implications. Among the meticulous details of his day-to-day spending were a list of ten of the missing women, and notes of one-way train tickets to Gambais. At the Villa Ermitage ashes from the